1. Technical Field
The invention relates to software technology for identifying and preserving evidence in litigation. More particularly, the invention relates to external scoping sources to determine affected people, systems, and classes of information in legal matters.
2. Description of the Prior Art
To identify affected elements accurately, e.g. people, systems, and classes of information, that may contain or have custody of evidence in anticipation of litigation or during litigation is a dynamic and complex process. In this context, the term “affected” means “having custody or potentially having custody of evidence.” A class of information is defined as a categorization of business documents, based on their function and purpose, also commonly referred to as a “record type.”
Enterprises have a multitude of information silos where information about people, systems, and record types is maintained and managed. The problem of identifying people, systems, and class of information is further complicated by the fact that this information is trapped within applications and data stores in various forms and formats. Trying to refine the list of affected people starting with a list that is not comprehensive usually results in a list of limited accuracy.
In common cases, a significant part of the knowledge about relationships between people, systems, and record types may be captured in various disparate systems throughout the company. To be able to use this knowledge to identify affected elements, one must:                Identify all systems that are potential sources of knowledge of these relationships and, consequently, sources of knowledge of affected people, systems, or record types.        Provide communication channels to transfer this information efficiently into the context of an impending litigation or current litigation that tracks which elements are affected, commonly referred to as a “request scope.”        Collaboratively and efficiently manage the affected lists of the request scope to keep them accurate in the context of an impending litigation or during litigation.        Provide accurate reporting on where any parts of the affected lists originated.        
The above steps are usually iterative.
It would be advantageous to provide a method and apparatus that enables a thorough, quicker, and cheaper approach to creating exhaustive, affected lists within a request scope. It would also be advantageous to minimize any legal risk due to failure to identify or leverage existing knowledge of a company about whom or what may have custody of evidence related to a legal matter.